NAACP national prison program returns

New Crisis, The, Mar/Apr 2001

The NAACP has a message for the 2 million African-American men, women, and youth in prison: in the United States incarceration doesn't have to mean giving up your civil rights.

The new year brought the rebirth of the NAACP National Prison Program, which began on May 25, 1972, when the Federal Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pa., became home to the first NAACP prison branch.

Leroy Mobley, a founder of the Lewisburg Branch, later became the first director of the National Prison Program. Under his direction, the program sprouted 36 prison branches nationwide, which sought to cultivate the skills inmates would need to prosper upon their release. Prison branches sponsored GED classes, antiviolence seminars, fund raisers, athletics, jobplacement programs, and workshops in creative writing and money management. The National Prison Program also stood as a crucial advocate for legislation to ensure human and civil rights to prisoners.

The National Prison Program languished in the 1990s as the charters for many of the prison chapters expired without renewal. Yet the issues that had made the program a valuable part of prisoners' lives remained, and piles of letters requesting help accumulated at NAACP national headquarters. Last October, the NAACP moved to answer that demand and resurrected the National Prison Program. Connie Craig was hired as National Prison Program coordinator. Three months later, she was joined by the Rev. Arnold Howard, National Prison Program director.

A decade of dormancy left a tall order for Craig and Howard, namely how to grapple with the tide of prisoner concerns that had not abated during the National Prison Program's hiatus. They have begun where the call for aid has been strongest. The National Prison Program has started investigating potential sites for prison chapters in 13 Southern and Midwestern states. Those states "harbor the largest concentration of African Americans, particularly males, who are incarcerated," Howard explains.

"Certainly our concern is everywhere, but where [we should] initiate the thrust of our efforts, those seem to be the logical starting point. Top among them being Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida."

The National Prison Program will connect prison branches to NAACP branches in their communities. These local branches will be trained to respond to prison branch inquiries, link prisoners to groups that can provide legal advocacy or job preparation, and communicate prisoners' needs to community leaders and to the NAACP.

As it works to create prison chapters, the program will also create awareness of pressing prisoner issues, one of which is inmate re-enfranchisement. Many ex-prisoners and those detained before trial do not know that they are eligible voters. "The vote is the basic right of citizenry, and so that ought to be one of the last things that gets taken away," Howard says.

The National Prison Program will again take up its role as lobbyist for policy changes that protect inmate rights. Howard notes that many of the problems inmates face have a "systemic source" that may be remedied by "changing the law."

While the National Prison Program is still in the early stages of its redevelopment, it has clearly been welcomed by prisoners whose voices have long been silenced by their incarceration.

"As word is getting out, we're starting to get calls," Howard says. "We have such a massive inquiry out there."

Responding to those calls presents physical and financial challenges for the National Prison Program. Much of the struggle lies in the mechanics of letting prisoners and communities know that the NAACP is ready to serve as an advocate for prisoners' rights and as a supporter of prisoners' rehabilitation.

The NAACP faces the challenges ahead with grit. "We look forward to an outstanding program," says John Johnson, head of the NAACP Programs Department.

As Reverend Howard puts it, the National Prison Program moves ahead with a clear sense of duty: "So much needs to be done with so few people, and yet it has to be done because we have literally thousands of lives that are at stake."